Hyatt Acquires Travel Club Mr & Mrs Smith
by Daniel McCarthy /Hyatt Hotels is acquiring the Mr & Mrs Smith travel club for just over $66 million.
The deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter, will see Hyatt acquire 100% of Mr & Mrs Smith, an asset-light platform that gives its members access to a collection of over 1,500 boutique and luxury properties.
The club was founded in 2003 by James and Tamara Lohan, and provides members access to a collection of boutique hotels, villas, and other accommodations in various destinations around the world. It is free to join and has grown to more than one million members and now joins Hyatt, which itself is in a major growth mode with the recent acquisitions of Dream Hotel Group and ALG Vacations.
Hyatt said it expects the deal to help double its access to boutique and luxury properties. As part of the deal, Hyatt will add over 100 Mr & Mrs Smith colleagues to its commercial services team, including Tamara and James Lohan.
“We are excited by this planned acquisition and to explore bringing guests and World of Hyatt members even more global luxury offerings across hundreds of geographies – including over 20 countries where there are currently no Hyatt hotels such as Fiji, Croatia, Iceland, and Anguilla,” said Mark Vondrasek, chief commercial officer, Hyatt.
“Founders Tamara and James Lohan alongside their impressive team have built the ultimate global direct booking collection of truly unique stay experiences including rooms located in treehouses, within caves, and underwater suites. Importantly, we see a lot of synergy between our collective ethos of care, and we look forward to working together to bring our shared focus to new, memorable stay experiences for guests and World of Hyatt members – and introduce new guests to Hyatt hotels around the world.”?